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Friday, July 4, 2014

Bees bees bees and a vulture

Last month or so, I put up there mini hummer feeders for the bees so they have their own sugar water. The feeders seem to keep them from bothering the bigger feeders for the hummer. Today the bees SWARMED the little feeders.

I love to sit outside and maybe read or just relax. This afternoon, I carried a pile of newspapers and magazines outside, then plopped down in a chair on the rock patio. T'wasn't long before a bee showed up. Then another. And another. Now, see, I don't mind bees, and they don't scare me either. Much. But after awhile, those bees got to be a nuisance, landing on my arms and legs. Honestly, I also didn't want to take a chance on irritating one of them. So I gathered up my reading material and moved to another chair on the other side of the yard.

Well, you guessed it. The bees showed up. More than just one or two. Dang. So I gave up and went back into the house.

T'wasn't long before a TURKEY VULTURE showed up on the other side of our back fence and landed in the grass. I grabbed a compact camera and went outside for some shots. At the sight of me, the vulture flew up and into a nearby oak. While I was lurking behind the peppervine, getting plenty of whiffs of the dead thing in the grass (probably a squirrel), and hoping to get a good angle, something nipped at my left ankle. Normally, I can ignore a mosquito biting me if the occasion calls for it. But this bite hurt a tad. I glanced down, and DANG IF IT WASN'T A BEE! I said a bad word (or two) and swatted at my ankle. I think it stung me. I gave up on getting a vulture shot and went back into the house, very disgruntled.

I did, as you can see, get a few shots before throwing in the towel. Then less than an hour later, the bees SWARMED our three mini hummer feeders. The show didn't last real long. But I figured I should get a video of the event. Very interesting!

Oh! Did the vulture get the dead thing? I assume so. James saw it fly away later. And my sting? Hey, thanks for asking! The bee or whatever it was didn't get a very good jab at me because my bite hasn't hurt much. Yet. Here's hoping for the best!

Well at least the vulture didn't mistake YOU for the dead thing. That's fascinating (and a bit intimidating) video of the bees swarming. Though I'm not afraid of the ones that I share the front porch with once the queen's wreath blooms hit full stride, I'm a lot more comfortable watching that sort of activity from the safety of indoors!

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About Me

I write for a living. So I sit. A lot. In front of my computer. At a desk. Next to my office window. I'd always thought it'd be so cool to set a bird bath between two live oaks I can see from my window. Then I could take breaks and just watch. Well, I got my bird bath, all right. When I married my husband, James Hearn, in May 2006, I got that. And more. Thanks to the enthusiastic help of my partner, our lawn now brims with native flowers, plants, birds and other wildlife. In 2007, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department certified our yard (front and back) as a Texas Wildscape. In 2012, I became a certified Texas Master Naturalist with the Highland Lakes chapter. Also in 2012, TPWD designated our Wildscape as a Wildlife Habitat Demonstration Site. From my window now, nearly every day, I watch nature have fun. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to write.... (Profile photo by Earl Nottingham)